GW Fins In Summer: Spearfish, Fins Feast.
GWFins, the superb seafood house across the street form Arnaud’s, runs a good summer menu they call “Fins Feast” every year. It begins this year on July 6, and runs on Sundays through Thursdays through the end of August. It’s the seventh year, with prices still holding from the high $30s into the $40s for three courses. The menu changes every day at GWFins as the seafood market does, but every day they have a dozen or so different finfish from all over the world (but mostly from Louisiana).
While we’re waiting for Fins Feast to get rolling, Chef-Partner Tenney Flynn has a unique special. This past weekend, he went spearfishing in the Gulf, and brought back a lot of fish that only a scuba diver would have much chance of finding. Tomorrow, June 30, GWFins will share this rare catch in a four-course, wine-paired dinner. Only 24 seats are available, so reservations are essential immediately, at the phone number below. The price is $75 plus tax and tip.
GW Fins
French Quarter: 808 Bienville. 504-581-3467. www.gwfins.com.
NOMenu invites restaurants or organizations with upcoming special events to tell us, so we might add the news to this free department. Send to news@nomenu.com.
Saturday, June 20, 2015.
Return To WWL With MA. More Hamburgers. Catching Up With Grass.
Mary Ann and I are reunited after her week on the West Coast. We make it official by hosting a full three-hour radio show together. The subject slides into the matter of hamburgers, which are never far from Mary Ann’s mind. She says that far more people eat hamburgers than the gourmet food I usually talk about. I’m sure she’s right about that. But we party company when I assert that that the hamburger crowd isn’t enough interested in more advanced forms of eating to support a radio show or a website–the two main pillars of support for our family. But that discussion could go on for years. In fact, it has.
After the show, I tackle the Cool Water Ranch’s overly grassy fields. They have not been mowed since a week before we left on the cruise, over a month ago. It didn’t rain much while we were away, so the mower can still be seen from the outside world as I cut my swaths through the waving greenery. It is also nice not to have to worry about getting stuck in the mud.
Mary Leigh and I go to dinner at the Acme. Ironically, what we come for is a hamburger, as advertised as a new menu item on the letterboard outside the Covington Acme. I have seen it for a few weeks, and my curiosity gets the better of me. The waitress (who, according to the neon signs, is available sometimes) says that the burger is made of beef brisket and top round, plus a small percentage of ground pork. It comes out thick and juicy, but lacks the crustiness I like in a hamburger. And the bun is the usual spongy thing. It’s not good enough for me to blow my whole one-point-two monthly hamburger limit on it. Certainly not in the presence of the Acme’s great raw, fried and grilled oysters, which have my full allegiance. But I’m sure the burger will sell well to those who don’t like oysters.
Sunday, June 21, 2015.
Two Father’s Day Repasts.
Restaurateurs are telling me that Father’s Day–once only a joke based on Mother’s Day–has become almost as busy a dining day as Mother’s Day. At least in terms of customer counts. Mother’s Day still creates the biggest one-day influx of dollars of the year. Moms want to see a big feast in a fancy place. Dads have an appreciation for watching the budget, and prefer less formal restaurants. Steak houses, seafood joints, Mexican food, Vietnamese. . . that’s what fathers like. Especially when it’s time for the ultimate irony: the dads’ paying of the bill.
Mary Ann says she will take me to breakfast at Mattina Bella. I expect that the place is full, and it is: a half-hour wait for a table at ten-thirty. I think Mattina Bella’s food is worth that any day of the year. MA has fried eggs and a small pancake. For me, an omelette filled with the house’s spinach-artichoke dip, with melted mozzarella. I am no fan of spin-dip, but something about this appeals to me today. It is as good as I was hoping for, mainly by being less cheesy-rich than it sounded.
Mary Leigh is working at Sucre today, and isn’t back home until about five. Which is long enough since breakfast for us to go out again. The Marys ask me where I want to go for my big Father’s Day dinner, and I say Zea. It will be relaxing, and I will get the kind of food that’s on my mind. The tomato bisque soup du jour, for example. But the Covington Zea has sold out of that and moved over to the corn bisque, which I think is just about as good. I have a salad and a tuna stack. Ribs and salads for the Marys. On the way out, I receive a four-pack of Zea’s beers, as do all the other dads who come here today. I hand the quartet over to the waiter. My refrigerator at home is already full of Zea beer. I like it well enough, but I almost never drink beer at home.
My family usually gives me joke cards on Father’s Day. That’s perfectly appropriate, given the kind of joker I am. Mary Leigh almost bought me another card with a cat jumping out or the like. But she changed her mind, and sent me a serious missive, whose verses include everything I ever wanted to hear or read from a daughter. “Thanks, Dad, for supporting my dreams, for giving me the freedom to grow, for showing your love in so many way, and for being such an all-around wonderful dad. I love you!”
I think that this means that everyone in my family is now fully grown up. Which is, of course, The Big Goal.
Just like a dad, when we get back home I get back to work.
Monday, June 22, 2015.
A Not-So-Good Oyster Loaf From A Very Good Roast Beef Poor Boy Shop.
Mary Leigh suggests that we go for lunch to the Po-Boy Company in Mandeville, and the three of us do so. They make a great roast beef here, but I have never had one of their fried seafood sandwiches. So an oyster loaf it is, preceded by a stack of thinly-sliced onion rings. I learn that this is not a house specialty. The oysters are soft and lack the crackly coating that make the fried bivalves so good. I eat the whole thing anyway. And a chocolate-chip cookie on the way out. The order-taker has a hard time extracting the cookie from the clear plastic display case. To make up for the delay, he gives me two. “We don’t sell many cookies, anyway,” he says. I eat both cookies after the Marys refuse them. This is one of those places where weight-loss programs run off the rails, sometimes permanently.
My day feels off balance as the annual summer hiatus for the North Shore Performing Arts Society continues. I miss all the wonderful mental boosts I get from singing.
Rocky & Carlo’s
St. Bernard Parish: 613 W St Bernard Hwy. 504-279-8323. Map.
Very Casual
Cash only.
Website
WHY IT’S NOTEWORTHY
Rocky’s is as intense and unreconstructed a piece of whereyaat culture as exists. It’s an old bar and cafeteria-style restaurant serving poor boys (both familiar and unspeakable varieties) and ridiculously overloaded homestyle platters, without a hint of delicacy. Watch other diners carefully, and see some offbeat but quintessentially local tastes express themselves. (Example: baked macaroni and cheese drenched with brown gravy.) This is not brilliant food. But it’s hard to imagine New Orleans without Rocky & Carlo’s.
WHAT’S GOOD
Operating like a cafeteria, Rocky & Carlo’s does most if its business in the platters of the day, poor boy sandwiches, and latter-day New Orleans-Sicilian pasta dishes. The most outstanding quality of the place is the massive size of the portions. Few people can eat a whole entree, although many try.
BACKSTORY
Restaurants very much like this existed in St. Bernard Parish long before Rocky Tommaseo and Carlo Gioe opened their restaurant in 1965. It has not changed much over the years, and most of those changes were results of disasters (fires, hurricanes, etc.). Nothing has ever knocked the place out permanently–a condition that is unimaginable to most St. Bernard people.
DINING ROOM
It looks a lot nicer since the most recent renovation (about seven years ago). But it’s the most casual of the casual places. Noisy and unintentionally entertaining.
BEST DISHES
Starters
Onion rings
Stuffed or fried artichokes
Garlic bread (fresh garlic & parsley)
Eggplant sticks
Wop salad
Entrees
Baked ham
Baked, broiled or barbecue chicken
Barbecue ribs
Fried fish
Fried chicken
“Bruciloni” (braciolone)
Meatballs & spaghetti
Veal parmesan
Red beans & rice
Fried oysters, shrimp, crab cakes, or combo
Ribeye or T-bone steak
Sandwiches
Hamburgers
Ham
Meatball
Salami
Veal cutlet
Fried seafood
Muffuletta
Sides
Green beans, tomato sauce, smoked sausage
Jambalaya
Lasagna
Macaroni & cheese
Onion rings
Desserts
Lemon berry mascarpone cake
Chocolate mousse cake
Spumone cheese cake
FOR BEST RESULTS
You only need half an order of anything here.
OPPORTUNITIES FOR IMPROVEMENT
It always seems to me that the food isn’t quite hot enough.
FACTORS OTHER THAN FOOD
Up to three points, positive or negative, for these characteristics. Absence of points denotes average performance in the matter.
Dining Environment +1
Consistency
Service
Value
Attitude
Wine & Bar
Hipness -2
Local Color 2
Lemon Ice Box Pie
I have no idea where I got this recipe, but I’ve had it so long that I think of it as mine. I thank whoever gave it to me. (Another mystery so familiar to those of us who save everything.)
1 14-oz. can sweetened condensed milk (Eagle or Magnolia)
1/2 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice, strained
Zest (grated peel) of one large lemon or two small ones
3 eggs, separated
Eight- or nine-inch pie shell
1/4 tsp. cream of tartar
3 Tbs. sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1. With an electric mixer, beat the egg yolks until they become light-colored and thick. Beat in the condensed milk for about a minutes. Then add lemon juice and lemon zest, and blend well. Pour into cooled pre-baked pie shell.
2. Make a meringue by beating egg whites in a completely clean, grease-free bowl (the best possible is a copper bowl) with cream of tartar at high speed, until peaks begin to form. Add the sugar and vanilla, and beat until stiff but not dry. Spread meringue on top of pie.
3. Bake pie at 350 degrees for 10 minutes, or until top is lightly brown. Chill several hours before serving.
Makes one pie.
Burning Man Roll @ Little Tokyo
One of the best of the large specialty sushi rolls, the Burning Man is made with spicy tuna inside the rice layer, with peppered, seared tuna, avocado, green onion, and hot sauce on the outside. The roll is probably named for the summer music and cultural event in the deserts of Nevada, but it’s otherwise of uncertain origin. I can’t find any mention of it outside New Orleans. It’s a specialty of the several Little Tokyo sushi bars, as well as a few other Japanese restaurants that spun off the Little Tokyo chain. What I like about it particularly is that it has no crispies, no crab salad, and no crab stick. It leaves a pleasant little burn in its wake.
Little Tokyo. Mandeville: 590 Asbury Dr. 504-727-1532.
||Metairie: 2300 N Causeway Blvd. 504-831-6788. || Little Tokyo. Mid-City: 310 N Carrollton Ave. 504-485-5658. This is among the 500 best dishes in New Orleans area restaurants. Click here for a list of the other 499.
June 29, 2015
Days Until. . .
Fourth Of July 5
Today’s Flavor
Today is Veal Chop Day. Veal chops were very hip in the 1980s. Every restaurant that served them found its customers raving about the dish. This popularity faded in the 1990s, and now veal chops are uncommon except in Italian restaurants, and not all of those serve them. One reason for this, beside the fading vogue, is the high cost.
The standard veal chop is cut from the rib roast. It’s analogous to prime rib in beef. Two relatively new varieties of veal chops are sometimes seen. Veal racks come from the far-forward end of the rib cage. They have small “eyes,” so are usually served two or three at a time. Also making more appearances than previously are the veal T-bone and veal porterhouse. Both contain parts of the tenderloin and strip loin, separated by the bone. I think veal tenderloins and veal strip steaks are underappreciated. I prefer them to rib chops–if they’re cooked properly.
Veal chops need special care in cooking. Because they lack the fat and collagen-bearing tissues of beef, they can get tough in cooking. I am persuaded that it might be a better idea to cook veal chops at a rather low temperature, instead of searing them in a pan or on a grill. They’re juicier than if they’d been cooked like steaks.
Some restaurants serve a veal chop pretty much as is, with perhaps a natural sauce. Others stuff it (Andrea’s veal chop Valdostana) or top it (Commander’s veal chop Tchoupitoulas). An underrated classic is veal chop Milanese style: pounded out and panneed with seasoned bread crumbs.
Edible Dictionary
chile con queso, chill-ee-cohn-KAY-so], Spanish (Mexican), n.–The literal translation into English is “chile peppers with cheese,” but there’s a little more to it than that. The cheese incorporates both white and orange cheeses (jack and cheddar) with cream, into which the the cheeses are melted to make a dip for tortilla chips. It’s also used as a sauce over a wide variety of Tex-Mex dishes, of which chile con queso is unarguably one. The quality criterion is to have the heat of the peppers and the richness of the cheeses to balance. The dip usually comes out hot and loose, but should thicken as it cools. Many restaurants buy chile con queso already made; indeed, you can buy it in jars at the supermarket. In recent years an ancestor of chile con queso has come across the Mexican border and become popular. In it, chorizo sausage is added to the cheese. This is known variously as queso fundido, queso flameado, and the Spanglish neologism choriqueso.
Annals Of Imaginary Eating
Antoine de Saint-Exupery was born today in 1900. He was both an accomplished aviator and a brilliant writer. His most famous book–Le Petit Prince–was ostensibly written for children, although the themes in it have a way of staying with us into adult life. His drawing in that book of a snake that just ate an elephant is memorable.
Gourmet Gazetteer
Chiles, Kansas rhymes with “tiles,” it still calls to mind the capsicum peppers we love in Mexican and other cuisines. It’s thirty-eight miles south of Kansas City. It’s a crossroads in the middle of lightly rolling grain-growing country. It’s a time point on a branch line of the Union Pacific Railroad, but there are enough houses at the intersection for it to be a community. No restaurant, though. The closest ones are five miles away in Spring Hill, the most interesting of which is El Tapatio–a Mexican place with a lot of chiles on the menu.
Annals Of Food Writing
Rembert Dodoens was born today in 1516. He was a Flemish botanist who wrote a seminal book about the entire plant kingdom. Later, he wrote the Cruydt Boek, or Book Of Spices, a reference to the herbs and spices that were then in use for cooking and medicine. It’s a valuable work for those researching the ancient history of European cooking.Annals Of Winemaking
Annals Of Winemaking
This is the birthday (1912) of Emile Peynaud, who in France is considered one of the leading figures in the modernization of French vineyards and winery practices. Most of what he suggested seems obvious now. He said, for example, that very underripe and overripe grapes should be left out of the harvest. That did result in better wines. So did allowing malolactic fermentation to occur in some wines.
The Saints
It’s the feast day of St. Peter, the patron saint of fishermen, bakers (why?), butchers (?), and popes (he was the first one). St. Peter is depicted on the label of Chateau Petrus, one of the world’s most expensive red wines.
Alluring Dinner Dates
The stunningly beautiful and zaftig actress Jayne Mansfield died today in 1967, in a very bad automobile accident here in New Orleans. She was 36. She held many Miss This-Or-That titles, but turned down Miss Roquefort Cheese because, she said, “That just didn’t sound right.”
Food Namesakes
Dr. William James Mayo, who founded the Mayo Clinic with his father and brother, was born today in 1861. . . Pepper Johnson, an NFL linebacker, was born today in 1964. . . Nick Fry, who is in charge of Mercedes Formula One Racing, started his engine today in 1956.
Words To Eat By
“My mother was a good recreational cook, but what she basically believed about cooking was that if you worked hard and prospered, someone else would do it for you.”–Nora Ephron, American writer.
Words To Drink By
“Brandy, n.–A cordial composed of one part thunder and lightning, one part remorse, two parts bloody murder, one part death hell and the grave and four parts clarified Satan.”–Ambrose Bierce, The Devil’s Dictionary.
article.
We’ve Had This Table.
And the funny thing is that there are many others just like it in restaurants around town.
Click here for the cartoon.
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